Georgia football has been handled very strangely in the polls all season long. The College Football Playoff rankings treated Georgia the worst this season as they severly underrated the Bulldogs all season long. This was especially seen after Georgia’s loss to Ole Miss when they somehow fell nine spots in the rankings.
Georgia however got the last laugh because they finished in the CFP rankings at No. 2 after winning the SEC Championship game. While it’s nice that UGA finally earned the respect from the CFP committee, that respect is not shared by the AP voters as seen in the final AP Poll rankings that were just released.
Explain to me how Georgia wins the SEC, beats Texas twice, and is still ranked behind them?
— Aaron Leicht (@aaronleicht) January 21, 2025
All while telling us how much these Conference Championships matter. #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/HXmIbEraJA
How is Georgia still behind Texas?
Georgia finished the 2024 season as the AP Poll’s No. 6 team in the country. This ranking on its own seems fair as Georgia did lose three games this season and didn’t even win one CFP game. However, two of the teams ranked above Georgia makes no sense.
Let’s first mention that Ohio State, Notre Dame and Oregon all deserve to be above Georgia. But the next two teams don’t deserve that same honor.
How many times does Georgia need to beat Texas for people to start believing UGA is the better team? Georgia not only beat Texas in the SEC Championship game, but they also dominated the Longhorns in their own stadium. Texas also lost three games this season as well, so they don’t even have an argument there.
On top of that, Penn State doesn’t deserve to be above Georgia either. The Nittany Lions failed to beat any elite team this season as they lost the three biggest games of their season against Ohio State, Oregon and Notre Dame. Sure they won two playoff games, but Georgia would have easily beat SMU and Boise State as well. So who knows why voters are giving Penn State this much credit.
At the end of the day, these rankings mean absolutely nothing. The AP Poll honestly doesn’t really mean much during the season anymore, but unless you’re finishing No. 1 in the final poll then who cares where Georgia is. But it’s time for people to start respecting Georgia, even if this season wasn’t as good as the past few years.